GENEVA – Lebanese filmmaker and UNHCR High Profile Supporter Nadine Labaki delivered
the keynote speech at the 2019 Nansen Refugee Award prestigious ceremony on 7 October at
the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in Geneva.
The UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award honours individuals, groups, and organizations who go
above and beyond the call of duty to protect refugees, displaced, and stateless people.
Established in 1954, the Award celebrates the legacy of Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian scientist,
polar explorer, diplomat, and the first High Commissioner for Refugees for the League of Nations.
Kyrgyz Human Rights Lawyer Azizbek Ashurov has been selected as the winner of UNHCR’s
2019 Nansen Refugee Award. His work has supported the Kyrgyz Republic in becoming the first
country in the world to end statelessness.
Azizbek Ashurov, through his organization Ferghana Valley Lawyers Without Borders (FVLWB),
has helped well over 10,000 people to gain Kyrgyz nationality after they became stateless
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Statelessness affects millions of people worldwide, depriving them of legal rights or basic
services and leaving them politically and economically marginalized, discriminated against, and
particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
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